Monday, December 08, 2008

Jones not questioning Barber's toughness

I can't believe all the criticism that Jerry Jones is getting for his remarks that he thought Marion Barber would play in Sunday's game in Pittsburgh. Not only was this story plastered all over ESPN, Fox Sports, CBS Sportsline, but even Yahoo.com featured the headline "Owner calls out his player" with this picture of Jerry right next to it.

Here's some of the comments from the Yahoo.com story:

...it's probably not wise to call that guy a wuss.I wouldn't count on that Barber/Cowboys relationship lasting a whole lot longer. If Jones thinks Barber's a sissy, and is willing to publicly insult him about it, I can't see him making Barber a cornerstone of the franchise, either. And I can't see Barber wanting to play for a guy who thinks he's Charmin-soft.

This is absolutely ridiculous. Look at what Jerry Jones actually said about Barber, "He can play with that injured toe," Jones said. "He can play with the soreness and a combination of those things. I see nothing that led us to believe he couldn’t."

I think this was more about Jerry simply being uninformed as to just how serious the injury. This is also illustrates that Jerry wears many hats as an owner, GM and die-hard fan, but he's not the team doctor.

This is the same guy who has stood by Pacman Jones after all the drama he's caused this season. You really, truly believe that Jerry is calling out his franchise running back? Extremely doubtful.

The idea of Jerry questioning Barber's toughness is so ludicrous that Wade Phillips has become the voice of reason in this whole thing. The entire team has said they knew from early in the week that Marion the Barbarian wouldn't be playing in Pittsburgh. This is simply the case of the owner not being as involved as he thought he was. And while Jerry may not like that, that doesn't mean he's calling out his Pro Bowl running back.

Any hype you hear about this is simply media blowing this WAY out of proportion. Let it die.